The invention disclosed herein enables anchoring of therapeutic or diagnostic devices, such as for example bariatric sleeves, within the stomach with a relatively stable position and orientation. The system can supplement such current weight reduction technology as intragastric balloons and gastric banding as well as bariatric surgeries such as Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.
Roux-en-Y gastric bypass has proven an especially effective weight-reduction surgery, likely because it acts through multiple mechanisms. By reducing the effective size of the stomach the surgery reduces oral intake's exposure to gastric digestive juices and promotes early satiety by leaving a smaller residual stomach to fill. In bypassing the ampulla of Vater and a length of proximal small intestine the surgery delays the action of biliary and digestive enzymes on food particles while reducing the length of small bowel exposed to nutrients.
Current bariatric surgery procedures, while proven effective and beneficial for patients, are highly invasive, result in permanent changes to the patient's digestive tract, and carry a substantial risk of surgical complications or death. As a consequence of the risk, bariatric surgery is generally indicated only for the morbidly obese, body mass index (BMI) 40 or greater, or for the moderately obese (BMI>35) with substantial obesity-related comorbidities such as diabetes and hypertension.